AP EUROPEAN HISTORY 2012 SCORING GUIDELINES
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY
2012 SCORING GUIDELINES
Question 6
Analyze various ways in which ideology shaped foreign policy in Nazi Germany in the period 1933 through
1945.
9–8 points
• Thesis is explicit and fully responsive to the question. Thesis may appear in the beginning or in the
closing paragraph.
• Analyzes multiple examples of ideology and foreign policy actions/initiatives in some detail.
• Organization is clear, consistently followed, and effective in support of the argument.
• Essay is well balanced, discussing both ideology and foreign policy with specificity.
• All major assertions are supported by multiple pieces of relevant evidence.
• Contains strong linkage between ideology and foreign policy.
• May contain errors that do not detract from the argument.
7–6 points
• Thesis is explicit and responsive to the question.
• Analyzes multiple examples of ideology and foreign policy actions/initiatives.
• Organization is clear, is effective in support of the argument, but may not be consistently followed.
• Essay is balanced, discussing both ideology and foreign policies with some specificity.
• Contains clear linkage between ideology and foreign policy.
• All major assertions are supported by at least one piece of relevant evidence.
• May contain an error that detracts from the argument.
5–4 points
• Thesis is explicit but not fully responsive to the question.
• Analysis may mention both ideology and foreign policy but discuss one with more specificity.
• Organization is clear, effective in support of the argument, but not consistently followed.
• Essay shows some imbalance; neglects some major topics suggested by the prompt.
• Linkage may not be clearly articulated or developed.
• Most major assertions are supported by least one piece of relevant evidence.
• May contain a few errors that detract from the argument.
3–2 points
• Thesis is not explicit or merely repeats or paraphrases the prompt.
• Analysis may mention an ideology or foreign policy.
• Organization is unclear and ineffective; essay lacks specificity and may restrict itself to
generalities.
• Essay shows serious imbalance, neglecting most major topics suggested by the prompt; only one
aspect of ideology or foreign policy may be covered.
• Linkage is merely suggested or altogether absent.
• Only one or two major assertions are supported by relevant evidence.
• May contain several errors that detract from the argument.
© 2012 The College Board.
Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org.AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY
2012 SCORING GUIDELINES
Question 6 (continued)
1–0 points
• There is no discernible attempt at a thesis.
• There is no discernible organization.
• One or none of the major topics suggested by the prompt is mentioned.
• Little or no supporting evidence is used.
• May contain numerous errors that detract from the argument.
• May contain information entirely unconnected to the question.
© 2012 The College Board.
Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org.AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY
2012 SCORING GUIDELINES
Question 6 (continued)
Historical Background
Nazi ideology saw the world in terms of a “struggle of nations” for dominance; a nation’s worth was largely
measured in terms of military power and an ability to support aggression, thus Hitler early in his reign
committed Germany to massive rearmament and abrogation of the Versailles Treaty.
Relevant restrictions on Germany in the Versailles Treaty:
• Reduction of military forces (army reduced to 100,000 men; navy reduced; no tanks, no submarines,
no air force).
• Loss of territory: Rhineland made into a Demilitarized Zone (DMZ); the Saar, Danzig, and Memel
put under League of Nations control; West Prussia, Upper Silesia, and Posen to Poland; Alsace-
Lorraine to France; Hultschin to Czechoslovakia; Eupen and Malmady to Belgium; Northern
Schleswig to Denmark; lands gained in Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
• Reparations payments to victor nations and acceptance of Article 231, the “war guilt clause.”
“Struggle of nations” idea also led Hitler to try to make Germany economically self-sufficient (autarky).
He adopted the concept of a defense-led economy (Wehrwirtschaft) and linked it to the national struggle.
This belief implied that crucial resources outside Germany (e.g., oil) should be acquired by conquest rather
than trade. Hitler further stated that acquiring the territory set aside in the Polish Corridor was vital to
Germany’s ability to withstand any wartime blockades. The “struggle of nations” also meant that Hitler
would never negotiate for a compromise peace once the war had begun.
Mein Kampf was published in 1925. In it Hitler outlined the idea of Lebensraum, or living space, required
for the German people; his racial theory characterized the Aryan race as predominant and other races
(Poles, Slavs, Roma, Jews) as inferior. It articulated an idea of Germany’s destiny as Europe’s most
powerful nation, a destiny achievable through the leadership and authority of the National Socialist (Nazi)
Party. Hitler’s early speeches emphasized concern for sovereign equality and national self-determination:
although this originally meant self-determination for Germany (escaping Versailles’s restrictions),
eventually the language was used to advocate self-determination for all Germans (those in the Saar, in
Czechoslovakia, etc.).
Rearmament occurred throughout the 1920s as Germany secretly rebuilt its military while still keeping to
the letter of the Versailles restrictions. Hitler wanted to openly rebuild Germany’s military power:
• 1933 — Army prepared to treble in size; Air Ministry built 1,000 planes; increased construction on
military bases. Hitler withdrew from the Geneva Disarmament Conference when France would not
agree to equal levels of armament with Germany.
• 1935 — Hitler openly broke with Versailles Treaty, announced Germany’s rearmament, and
subsequently mandated conscription for German men; the number of planes in Luftwaffe increased
to 2,500; the Wehrmacht expanded to 300,000 men.
Nazi ideology is authoritarian, stressing the importance of a single strong leader (Fuhrerprinzip). On an
administrative level, Nazi Germany’s foreign policy was placed almost entirely in Hitler’s hands.
Nazi ideology stressed German nationalism and the idea that all Germans should be under one state
(Grossdeutschland); thus Hitler committed himself to occupation of all regions with significant German
populations (Austria, Sudetenland).
• 1935 — A plebiscite in the Saar region confirmed a desire for reunification with Germany. A Nazi-
funded Czech Sudeten-German party was created that complained of discrimination against ethnic
Germans.
© 2012 The College Board.
Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org.AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY
2012 SCORING GUIDELINES
Question 6 (continued)
• 1938 — March: Hitler sent the army to occupy Austria (Anschluss); in September held Munich
Conference (including England’s Neville Chamberlain, France’s Edouard Daladier, Italy’s Benito
Mussolini). The Munich Compromise authorized Germany’s occupation of the Sudetenland.
Czechoslovakia and the USSR were excluded. The following year Germany occupied the rest of
Czechoslovakia.
Anticommunism (anti-Bolshevism, anti-Judeo-Bolshevism) was central to Nazi ideology; thus
Hitler saw eventual conflict with the Soviet Union as inevitable.
• 1939 — Nazi-Soviet Pact was signed in August. Molotov for the USSR and von Ribbentrop for
Germany agreed that each country would remain neutral if the other was involved in a war.
• 1941— Operation Barbarossa: Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union included the “commissar order” to
shoot Communist Party agents in the army, communist agitators, Bolshevik rebels, and Jews. The
Einsatzgruppen (SS) was given specific orders to isolate, terrorize, and murder Jewish populations.
Fascist Italy was seen as a natural partner and ally because of ideological similarities. Pact of Steel in
1939 committed Italy to supporting Germany in the event of a war and made the agreement that neither
would negotiate a peace without the consent of the other.
Support of the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War is also an example of ideology driving foreign
policy.
• 1936 — Germany signed a nonintervention agreement with regard to Spain but formed the Condor
Legion (a combined air-army force), which aided the Nationalists from 1936 to 1939.
• 1937 – Guernica was bombed by the Condor Legion.
Support of quasi-fascist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Balkans (Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria)
and for ethnic Germans in the Balkan countries (Volksdeutsche) led to formation of Volksdeutsche
Mittelstelle (VoMi), or Ethnic German Aid Office, in 1935.
Nazi racial ideology of Aryan superiority over non-Aryan Untermenschen encouraged Polish and
Balkan conquests and the invasion of Russia, expulsions of non-Aryan populations in Eastern Europe,
destruction of Polish intelligentsia, etc. The treatment of occupied countries in Western Europe was
significantly less harsh, in part because of the ideological perception that Western European “races” were
more akin to the Aryans.
Anti-Semitism of Nazi ideology led to extermination of Jews in occupied countries (Holocaust).
• 1935 — Nuremberg Laws deprived German Jews of citizenship, civil rights, and civil liberties
(domestic).
• 1937–1938 — Labor and concentration camps set up in Germany (Buchenwald, Flossenburg)
(domestic).
• 1939 — Einsatzgruppen (SS) sent to Poland and USSR to find and murder Jews; ghettoes for Jews
established in Poland; camps for detention, slave labor (e.g., Chelmno or Kulmhof) established.
• 1941 — “Final Solution” adopted, camps created or adapted for use as extermination sites (e.g.,
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Poznan in Poland); transit and detention camps established in France,
the Netherlands, Italy, Ukraine, Croatia, and other occupied areas.
© 2012 The College Board.
Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org.© 2012 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org.
© 2012 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org.
© 2012 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org.
© 2012 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org.
© 2012 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org.
© 2012 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org.
© 2012 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org.
© 2012 The College Board. Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org.
AP® EUROPEAN HISTORY
2012 SCORING COMMENTARY
Question 6
Overview
This question was intended to measure students’ knowledge of Nazi ideology and foreign policy and their
ability to analyze connections between the two.
Sample: 6A
Score: 9
This essay’s opening sentence is insightful, and the thesis is strong. The introduction is well formulated
and organizes a well-constructed essay. Some minor errors (the rationale for invading the Netherlands, the
400 clauses in the Versailles Treaty to punish Germany) do not detract from the analytic quality of the
essay. The nuanced analysis strongly links foreign policy and ideology (“the Nazis pursued a rigorous
policy of ethnic cleansing in the Reich and its incorporated territories”) and provides numerous and
specific examples (e.g., Jews, Slavs, and Roma people are all mentioned as examples of victims Nazi racial
policies). This is an exemplary essay because of its strong linkages between ideology and policies, the
quality of the evidence provided, and the fluidity of the writing.
Sample: 6B
Score: 5
This essay sets out to address both ideology and foreign policy. The themes of Lebensraum, German
superiority, and Nazi racial distinctions are adequately developed as ideological bases for policy. There are
some connections drawn between ideology and policies (e.g., invasion of Austria, targeting Jews in
Poland). In general, however, the topic of Nazi foreign policy is not sufficiently well developed, and some of
the attempted linkages contain incorrect information that detracts from the overall argument (e.g., the
suggestion that Austria was invaded in revenge for nineteenth-century Habsburg policies vis-à-vis the
German Confederacy). The fourth paragraph, dealing with Hitler’s use of “emergencies” to acquire more
power, does not advance the argument because the chosen examples pertain to domestic rather than
foreign policy.
Sample: 6C
Score: 2
This essay mentions anticommunism as a component of Nazi ideology and attempts to link it to the
invasion of Russia. The essay also refers to German revanchist sentiment (“break the chains that was [sic]
placed on them after World War One”) but does not explain it further or link it to any specific foreign policy.
The third paragraph, dealing with Nazi use of propaganda, is not linked to any specific foreign policy. The
essay’s organization is ineffective, and there is very little specific evidence presented in support of the
argument (the exception being a reference to the Ribbentrop-Molotov nonaggression pact). The essay
lacks a valid thesis and offers both weak evidence and weak linkages between ideology and policies.
© 2012 The College Board.
Visit the College Board on the Web: www.collegeboard.org.You can also read
